This weekend, I have another special guest with a guest post. Today, I welcome author Melissa Addey to my blog to talk all things history and writing. If you’d like to know more about Melissa, you can find her details below. So let’s get into it!

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Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m a fulltime self-published author of historical fiction. I’ve done a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Surrey and have been the Leverhulme Trust Writer in Residence at the British Library, both of which were fantastic experiences. I also campaign with the Alliance of Independent Authors, where the focus is on ethics and excellence in self-publishing. I live in London with my husband and two children. I love to travel, especially if it’s a research trip, my tbr pile is well over sixty books, perilously stacked on a very small section of a bookshelf but somehow I keep buying more…

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How did you get into writing?

I wrote stories from when I was a very little girl and read huge amounts of mythology and books in general, I think absorbing all those past storytellers eventually created a new one in me! There’s favourite family photo of me aged about nine sat curled up in a large armchair with a giant tome perched on my legs, immersed in another world. I did various writing courses during my twenties, then started writing more in my thirties and got into historical fiction. I self-published in my late thirties and have been fulltime ever since. I love being an author.

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What era do you write about?

My first series was set in the 18th century, in China’s Forbidden City, following the lives of four concubines: some rose to power, others fell to madness, but all their lives were extraordinary. The second series was set in Morocco in the 11th century, as a Muslim warlord swept across the whole of North Africa and most of Spain to create a new empire, the events are followed by four women who each have a different part to play and a different take on what’s happening.

Right now I’m completing a series that follows the backstage team of the Colosseum in Ancient Rome. It begins with the run up to the inauguration of the Colosseum which happened just after Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii. The new manager of the Games, Marcus, loses his wife and child in that tragedy. His scribe, Althea, has to keep the show on the road and bring him back from a very dark place. It’s a grim setting but the team who run the Games are fiercely loyal to one another and the series is mostly about their lives and loves. I’ve grown very fond of them and had some lovely feedback from readers saying that the next time they saw the Colosseum they thought of all my characters below the arena making the Games happen, which was a huge compliment.

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What drew you to that time period(s)?

I tend to change era every few years, I’m a wandering minstrel! I think part of it is the fun of research and education myself about a new era, partly perhaps following themes across history. I think I like writing about times and places that have a very specific set of rules or hierarchies, little worlds within a world and how the characters navigate those restrictions.

Rome was always an era I thought I’d get to and I wondered who was running the gladiatorial Games: a sixty-thousand-seater stadium and the inaugural 100 consecutive days of multi-hour spectacles don’t just happen by themselves. I did a bit of preliminary research and discovered we seem to know so much about ancient Rome and even gladiators but almost nothing at all about the backstage team at an amphitheatre. The combination of lots of good quality historical material to research with a gaping hole where the fiction could be created was just too much of a draw to resist!

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Can you tell us a little bit about your most recent book?

On Bloodied Ground is the third book in the Colosseum series. There will be four in the end, each one has an elemental theme: From the Ashes is Fire and deals with Pompeii, a fever that killed 10,000 people and a 3-day fire while trying to inaugurate the Colosseum. Beneath the Waves is Water and covers the team trying to flood the Colosseum to stage a naval battle and the risks that brings. On Bloodied Ground is Earth and deals with earthquakes, huge building programmes and the legend of the Minotaur in the maze. There’s a very slow build romance across the series that starts really coming to light in this book. The fourth book is halfway written now and is called The Flight of Birds, it’s the Air book and deals with omens (Romans used birds for this), high winds causing a tragedy and the Colosseum being crowned with an awning. It’s the conclusion for all the characters so the title also refers to their ‘flight’ to (or from) something… no spoilers! It should be out in late winter/early spring.

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Where can people order your book(s)?

You can find them in ebook, paperback and some audio on Amazon, or go into any bookshop with my name and the title of the book and have them ordered in.

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Are you working on something at the moment? If so, can you spill the beans a little?

I’m completing the writing part of the Colosseum series, and so I’ve started doing research for the Regency era, I want to write a proper Regency romance. It’s always exciting to move into a new era and learn all about it. My new main character starts life as a foundling but rises… well, let’s see just how far she rises! The other day I sat down and worked out all of her wardrobe and spent several happy hours choosing bonnets and other accessories… what a dream job!

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Do you have a favourite historical source?

I have three: know this sounds odd, but children’s reference books are amazing and a fantastic source of everyday life. I end up reading academic works on intricate details as I progress in my research, but I always start a new era with children’s reference books. Publishers Usborne and Dorling Kindersley are wonderful for this.

My other favourite is re-enactments: societies or TV programmes where a group of people try to live in a particular era. Watching the details of daily life is fascinating. It’s one thing to say ‘they wore this’ with a picture or an outfit put on a mannequin, but another to see someone dancing or working in those clothes. Living history rather than just researching it always throws up something new.

Linked to this is that for every series I find a historian to work with who loves that era and can guide me. For the Colosseum series that’s Steven Cockings, who is a world renowned Roman re-enactor and has been fascinating to talk to. Here’s a photo of him in full costume and me at a Saturnalia (midwinter feast) dinner he hosted: I’m wearing an actual Roman necklace from the era from his own collection.

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If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring authors, what would it be?

Find out about both self-publishing and traditional publishing so you can make informed choices about your publishing route.

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Can you tell us your favourite fiction and favourite non-fiction book?

My favourite fiction book almost qualifies for non-fiction as well, it’s The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, in which a family during the 1930s Depression travel across America in a desperate attempt to find work after their farm is taken by the bank. It switches between a close-up of a specific family and a wider view of the same things happening on a vast scale to thousands of people. He somehow manages to make it deeply personal but also show the bigger political picture and switches from funny scenes to utter tragedy from one page to the next. It’s stunning. Steinbeck wrote a lot of journalism on the same topic before he wrote the book and when you read that you can see the book emerging.

Non-fiction was probably The Naked Author, a book by Alison Baverstock many years back which was about self-publishing and it was the first time I’d seen someone seriously talk about self-publishing with no snobbery when I was just becoming aware of it and it made me so excited that it was a real thing that I could make work for me. I met her afterwards and she has been hugely supportive and kind during my own writing career.

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I write historical fiction across several different eras, as I love to research new times and places. Come with me to:

Ancient Rome: meet the backstage team of the Colosseum, tasked with creating spectacular gladiatorial Games.

11th century Morocco: four women’s lives intertwine to tell the story of a rising empire across North Africa and Spain.

18th century China: the gilded lives of four imperial concubines, each struggling to find her place in the Forbidden City.

And a new era coming soon… press the ‘Follow’ button above to be sent an update when new books come out.

You can see some book trailers and videos of research trips on this page.

I hope you enjoy your travels with me – please do leave even a brief review if you have, it helps my stories find new readers and I read every one and am always touched by your kind words and by you taking the time.

I’ve been the Leverhulme Trust Writer in Residence at the British Library and won the Novel London award. I have a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Surrey and for my thesis I wrote about the balance between fact and fiction in historical fiction, while writing my novel The Garden of Perfect Brightness.

For more information on me and my books, visit my Website

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For a free novella please visit Melissa’s website!

You can also find Melissa at: X (Twitter)

I do hope you’ve enjoyed finding out more about Melissa. If so, please leave a comment and share.